“Really?” I tilted my head and asked.
“What? You too good for blue faces, now?”
“Nah.”
“Good then. You’re going to need them for this fucking tank you’re driving. Holler at me. I’m out.”
I watched as he turned and jogged back to his ride. The black Mercedes was waiting for him a few pumps over. It had been parked when we pulled up. It had been the reason I hadn’t seenhim prior. He was already inside of the gas station when Laike entered.
“That nigga gets blacker each time I see him,” Laike joked after climbing in the truck.
He’d pumped the gas while Ken and I caught up.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I agreed, putting the truck in gear and pulling out.
Laike removed the cord from my cell as soon as I hit the road, replacing it with his own. I wasn’t fucked up about it. I knew he was tired of listening to slow jams all morning. He replaced SiR with Jay. I couldn’t be mad at him for that.
“’Cause when my backs against the wall, nigga I react. Secretly, though, I know you admire that. Wish you had the balls to fire back. Blat!” I sang along with my favorite few lines as I pushed through Channing with one person on my mind. My ole lady.
Twenty minutes later, and I was parked across two spots in her lot, sure that she was watching me on camera. I debated waiting her out and making her come outside to raise hell about someone being so crazily parked on her lot, but my heart wouldn’t allow it. I was itching to get inside of her building and get her in my arms.
“You trying to start a war or what?” Laike asked when we stepped out of the truck.
He was so busy in his phone that he hadn’t noticed my parking until we got out.
“If you know what’s best for us, you’d walk a little faster so that she won’t come out of that door,” I warned, picking up my pace.
Shaking his head, Laike continued as if she wouldn’t cuss his ass out too for allowing me to park that way. When I got to the door, I punched in the personal code I’d remembered since my mother had gotten the system installed a year before I went in.The sound of the lock retracting was like music to my ears. She hadn’t switched up on me, either.
“Welcome to Einsenberg Smiles,” the receptionist greeted me when I walked in. She was about to continue, but hushed as she saw Laike step in behind me. With his finger to his lips, he silenced her.
“Shhhhh. Where she at?”
“Office,” the receptionist revealed.
“Appreciate you, Trina.”
“No problem.”
I led the way as Laike followed suit. Her office was just beside the main lobby. Her door was open, but instead of walking right in, I voiced my entrance.
“Knock. Knock,” I pounded on the door and stepped inside at once.
Her head whipped around as she spun in her chair. The phone that she’d been holding in her hand fell to her desktop as her mouth slacked and eyes bulged from her sockets.
“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed.
“What is it?” the tiny voice coming from the little girl in her lap asked.
When I saw the hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair, her origins weren’t up for questioning. She belonged to the woman who had my head in the clouds and my heart in a headlock. There was no doubt in my mind that Ever would bear my children. Looking at the mini version of her, my future quickly flashed before my eyes with her at the forefront, surrounded by my blonde-haired and hazel-eyed offspring.
“LUCA.”
“What’s up, ole lady?”
“Luca.” She said my name again as if she couldn’t believe it. Her eyes closed and reopened twice. She wanted to make sure she wasn’t seeing shit.
“You gone just sit there or what?”
